Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/08/04/labor_raids_gershon_it_fund_election_pledges/

Labor raids IT piggybank to grease election promises

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Or something

By Drew Cullen

Posted in Legal, 4th August 2010 16:32 GMT

Labor will cut Australia's IT budget to pay for election pledges.

This is how it will work. The Gillard government expects to save more than $1bn over four years through better procurement practices introduced by the IT efficiency expert Peter Gershon in 2008.

The savings were to be "quarantined" to fund new IT projects. But Labor will, if returned to power, spend $448m on other stuff.

Oh well.

That still leave $557m of taxpayers' money that was unavailable before the Gershon reforms for IT projects. Government departments can apply for a slice of this to fund pet programs.

Link: Australian IT